The present invention relates to a user interface for software applications, and more particularly, to systems and methods for rendering and displaying help information within the user interface based on available rendering applications.
Generally, when a software developer creates a software application, the developer writes a help file associated with the software application to assist the user. Unfortunately, unless the developer includes rendering software with the software application for rendering the help file, the help file content may not display as desired or expected.
Conventionally, help content is coded in a presentation dependent manner. Even in cases where developers have created authoring and distribution systems that target different published formats (such as print, CD, HyperText Markup Language, and the like), the authoring and distribution systems are still presentation dependent. The term “presentation dependent” refers generally to the formatting of the content. For example, if an author specifies the way in which something is to be displayed (such as bold, italics, blue, and the like) even if the way the formatting is eventually implemented varies across applications, the authored content is not presentation independent. Unfortunately, depending on the end user's system on which the content is to be displayed, a selected formatting type may or may not be supported, and consequently the content may be displayed without formatting and/or in a way that is difficult for the user to read. Unfortunately, the author cannot account for all possible variations in the capabilities of end user systems.
Therefore, there is an ongoing need in software application design for systems and methods for delivering and displaying presentation independent content. Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to these problems and other advantages over the prior art.